Computer Music January issue (CMU108) on sale now!

Details of what's in this month's issue, including MAGIX Music Maker 12 Silver, 2656 royalty-free samples and the definitive guide to rhythm!

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ON THE DVD

• EXCLUSIVE free software: MAGIX Music Maker 12 Silver!

Only for CM readers, Music Maker 12 Silver is a feature-packed DAW that´s ridiculously easy to use and comes complete with samples, virtual instruments and mastering tools. It´s just the thing if you´re getting started with music technology or are looking for an intuitive musical ‘notepad´ to use alongside your main DAW. And as always, there´s a comprehensive tutorial in the mag to get you started with it.

• 2656 royalty-free samples

This month´s collection of specially commissioned soundware is headed up by 2474 24-bit indie rave samples from Andrew Duke, Groove Criminals and Cyclick, including guitars, basses, drums, loops, stabs and much more. Then, when your arms tire from all that glo-stick waving, ease down with 181 CM Classics and 87 impulse responses.

• EXCLUSIVE 35-minute Future Cut tutorial video

Accompanying our new Producer Masterclass series, Lily Allen producers and genre-straddling DnB artists in their own right Future Cut Productions show us how they created one of their classic remixes in Logic Pro. From rearranging breakbeats in MIDI to layering up tracked vocals and creating rich synth basslines, no production secret is too taboo for the pair to tackle in screen-capped video!

• KVR Developer Challenge plug-ins

www.kvraudio.com´s Developer Challenge saw the creation of more than 30 new instruments, effects and standalone programs, from the sublime to the ridiculous. On this month´s CM DVD, you´ll find almost all the entries in a slap-up feast of aural entertainment that´s bound to fuel your music-making.

IN THE MAG

• Playing With Time

The definitive guide to all things rhythm-related, our cover feature explains the basics of tempo, pulse, metre, swing and more, before showing you a whole host of ways in which you can manipulate and mess with them all. If you´ve always kept yourself locked in a 4/4 box and want more from the temporal side of music, then this is the tutorial you´ve been waiting for!

• Producer Masterclass - Future Cut

The first in a new series in which we break into the studios of cutting edge musicians and threaten to break their dongles if they don´t share their production secrets with us (and, consequently, you). First up are DnB legends/Lily Allen producers Future Cut, who talk us through the making of their classic remix of Marky & XRS´‘Unlimited Gold´ in the mag and on the DVD (see above).

• How to program realistic drums

Want to get your sampler-generated beats sounding as lifelike as the real thing? In this tutorial, we show you how to program drum kit parts so convincing that even a drummer wouldn´t know they were coming from a MIDI track.

• The CM Guide to Convolution

Everything you could ever hope to learn about impulse responses and convolution techniques, including a step-by-step walkthrough on how to make your own, plenty of creative tips to take you beyond convolution´s usual realistic reverb applications, and a collection of IRs on the DVD.

• Cubase 4´s new plug-ins

Part 2 of our guide to Steinberg´s latest and greatest sees us taking a tour of its newly introduced VST effects and instruments, and revealing some great ways in which to use them.